From American streets to Andean coca farms, the United States has battled drugs since Richard Nixon was president. And yet, some 35 years and 500 billion dollars later, drugs are everywhere, and cheap, and Americans are using them in epidemic proportions.

Critics say the War on Drugs is lost — half a million people in prison for drug crimes, while the cartels remain two steps ahead of the Feds.

Now, with a new billion-plus dollar plan to go after Mexican cartels, will we repeat the mistakes of the past?

This hour, On Point: America’s lost war on drugs, and the search for a new way.

-Jayne Clayson

Guests:

Ben Wallace-Wells, Contributing Editor at Rolling Stone Magazine.

Ethan Brown, author of the just-released “Snitch: Informants, Cooperators, and the Corruption of Justice.”

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